How to remove glued down carpet

It does not come up easily. In fact, it does its very best to remain firmly in place. First, we used a utility knife to cut the carpet into strips and peeled each strip of carpet up. This effectively removed the top layer of carpet and padding, but left behind a pretty thick layer of black foam.

Of all of the things I tried, the best way to deal with this foam was simply to use elbow grease and a scraper and scrape it off. Luckily, other than giving me a pretty good arm workout, it wasn’t particularly difficult.

The real test was the black adhesive residue that was still left behind, stuck to the subfloor. I turned to the Internet and immediately got started researching the most painless way to get the nasty stuff up. I found lots of suggestions:

Murphy’s Soap

I mixed it with some water and wiped it on with a rag and then scraped. When it did not come up well, I waited half an hour and then scraped some more.

It really didn’t seem to make any difference. The Murphy’s soap did not help at all. (I didn’t really expect it to, but I had some on hand and one person said it had worked for them).

Citristrip and Mineral Spirits

I applied each of these to different areas with a rag, waited half an hour and then scraped. These gave very similar results and they both definitely made a difference. The adhesive was able to be scraped off, but still required a lot of time and elbow grease.

Boiling Water

First I tried just pouring the water on the floor and scraping. No difference. Then I read a tip to pour the boiling water on a towel on the floor and let it soak for about an hour.

When I tried it this way, the results were much better. This actually worked even better than the chemical strippers. Add that to the fact it involves no harmful chemicals and was free and I was sold.

After my original test, I decided to go with the boiling water/steam method. I brainstormed a little more and decided I could probably tweak my method a little and get faster results.

So I tried using my iron on the steam setting to loosen the adhesive before scraping and also borrowed a Shark steam mop to try. Both of these worked pretty well. However, even though it was working, I had a really large room to do and it was going really slowly.

I was starting to wonder if I would ever finish… so I decided to try another method I hadn’t been able to test out originally – a chemical adhesive remover called Sentinel 747. It is available at Home Depot for around $20.

Sentinel 747

I tried it out on a small area of the floor and it was amazing. It worked better and faster than the steam method and was what I used to finally complete the room.

My room is around 250 square feet so I ended up needing three jugs for a total of around $60 but it was definitely worth the expense.

Successfully Removing Carpet Adhesive

My final method looked something like this: After scraping up the foam backing, I poured some of the Sentinel on a small area of the floor and spread it around with an old mop. After letting it soak for 15-20 minutes I scrubbed it lightly with a wire brush and then used my scraper to scrape all of the adhesive off.

Wherever there were stubborn areas that didn’t come off right away, I just repeated the process.

Yay for one step being done!

As you can see, we went ahead and moved our furniture back into the room as well as a rug we had in storage. We still had a few more problems to tackle in adjoining rooms before laying our new floors and not having anywhere to sit was getting pretty old.

Now to work on bringing the kitchen floor down to the same level so that our wood floors will be seamless between the two rooms. Nothing is ever easy in DIY, that’s for sure.

Comments

Being short of money is one thing, being short of time and desire is another. Basically its’ a question of elbow grease. Chip off what you can and sand the rest. There is no lazy way to remodel. Sweat equity means exactly that. If its’ a rental unit, schmooze your landlord or learn to live with it. This kind of built-up crap has no simple chemical solution. Even not any Industrial Equipment in market.

This was definitely one of those cases where sanding is not the answer. I have attempted to sand a somewhat similar substance before with a power sander. Instead of becoming smooth, it simply gummed up the sander and melted the adhesive. In this case, sanding would have most definitely been the lazy, incorrect way.

Be cautious. I removed something similar sbout 20 years ago and ended up with a full-body rash. Had to go to the emergency room and was given an epinephrine shot. I don’t have many environmental allergies, so something in the black bscking or the glue used was very dangerous for me.

Wow, that is terrible! I am sorry to hear that happened to you and glad I didn’t have a similar reaction. You are right – anyone doing this should definitely be careful. Always ventilate the area well and keep your skin covered with long sleeves and gloves.

How old was the adhesive? You actually need to be careful about some of the really old stuff as it may contain asbestos; definitely have questionable flooring tested before doing anything where you might stir particles into the air and, consequently, into your lungs. Generally newer flooring won’t have that issue but it is worth noting.

I know it’s an old post but I thought I’d ask if you were installing new wood floors over the plywood, why go through the hassle of removing every trace of the adhesive? I understand of course needing a smooth surface – I’ve installed all too much hardwood flooring myself but wouldn’t think a film of adhesive would be an issue unless it was built up in some areas. I’m about to start scraping up glued down carpet myself.

Good question. Unfortunately when we removed the carpet, only the top layer came up, not the glued down backing. I removed the adhesive because it was very thick and built up with plenty of the carpet’s foam backing still stuck to it. Even after I removed it all, there was still a film of the adhesive in a lot of areas but as long as it was smooth I didn’t worry about it. The main point was to get everything smooth. Hopefully, your process will go much more smoothly!

To level the floors for wood. You will have to remove plywood in kitchen or add another layer in the other room to have it be flat. Kitchen just hope the built up floor was not done before the cabinet bases were put in( can you see the problem here) It can be a real bear to level floors. Done it before. Might be easier to add plywood to the other room to level it off. Just take the path of least resistance. Just use circular saw, cut a little lower into plywood cutting thru, pry bars to get the ply up hopefully it wasnt glues down( horror story) Old homes may have asbestos in the flooring and they just plyed over it. Can you see the possibilities multiplying.

Thanks Peter – we ended up removing the extra level of plywood in the kitchen. And you are right – it was a huge pain, mainly because we had to cut it around the cabinets. So glad that job is behind us.

Kari, I chose the 747 for a couple of reasons. I saw it mentioned by name on several forums and I liked that it specifically mentioned working on both black cutback adhesive and carpet foam backing which seemed to be what I had. Also, it was available at my local Home Depot so it was convenient.

We had the same black foam adhesive on our carpeted stairs. We used the 747 product you recommended and it worked great. Thank you so much! We were stumped on what to use because the things we had tried were not working.

I need to get the carpet squares up from my kitchen and bathroom (carpet, really?). there’s linoleum(?) Tile underneath. it’s a 65yr old mobile home. Should i worry about asbestos? Would there be a chemical reaction btwn paint remover and asbestos?

Good question Jeannine, First of all – sounds like you have a real mess. Carpet tiles over linoleum – not fun! I cannot say for sure whether you need to worry about asbestos. Luckily I haven’t run into this, but I do know that you can get an asbestos test kit at Home Depot or Lowes fairly cheaply. For peace of mind, it would be worth trying one before working on those carpet tiles.

I loved your suggestions and how you went about your project. If you have another that is coming along I would suggest using adhesive remover. I had a similar issue with old carpet padding. After attempting the same methods as you i went to ACE hardware and asked them they pointed me to a metal can of Adhesive remover and it was a glory! 30 min per application and the gunk on my hardwood came right up with a puddy knife. Good luck with future projects and i’ll keep an eye on your blog for more hints.

My floor has a lot of adhesive left over on it, after I pulled up the carpet. I have tried water like you and have had little success. Thank you for sharing how using boiling water worked even better than chemical strippers. I am also considering finding a service that can help me remove the adhesive quickly because I need my floor done in a week for guests coming over.

I am reupholstering my teak dining chairs. Having quite a time trying to remove the stuck on foam when the material is removed. I don’t have a lot of strength in my hands. ( I am 81 years old). Any ideas?

Hi Barbara, That’s a tough one. If you are replacing the old foam with new foam, you might be able to cut away the top layers of foam and simply cover what remains stuck with the new piece of foam. Of you might be able to loosen the old adhesive using heat from a blow dryer or boiling water, although that might be tough if the foam is very thick. Good luck! I really hope that I am DIYing when I am 81 as well!

I wish I had seen this earlier. I had the exact same situation. I wanted to remove the carpet to expose the old tongue and groove flooring. I used a steamer. It was mostly effective but a slow tedious (pain in the back) process. It also emitted a nasty odor with the steam. I still have a few patches to go. For $20 I will need to see if I can pick up a jug of this.

As a seasoned fixer upper…. here are is most effective method I’ve used BE PATIENT!!!.ALWAYS WORK IN SMALL AREAS ! Approximately 3′ x 5′ 1. Remove as much of black backing as possible…good tome to saturate with very hot water covered with old towel let sit 30 minutes . Use 3″ putty knife at this stage to scrape . Put residue in box scraping blade on box edge to keep blade clean . This is the easiest step. 2.Purchase a gallon of ADHESIVE/MASTIC stripper. Use a very inexpensive or ruined( one not cleaned soon enough) 3″ paintbrush. Purchase a WINDOW GLAZING tool. It has a very narrow blade. This is the BEST tool I’ve used. It has a bevel on the blade. Wear safety goggles and heavy rubber gloves. Paint the stripper on heavily, using extra pooling of product on black areas. Place painters plastic over wet area. Sweep with angled broom to make contact to stripper. This forms a seal. Then put a small throw rug on top of plastic. NOW BE PATIENT WAIT AT LEAST ONE HOUR. Test small patch…if it comes up easily roll back plastic one board…scrape…you can reveal up to 3 boards . You don’t want it to dry out. If you are ready to scrape this area, put stripper on next section then note time. This allows you to continue. IT IT DIFFICULT TO WAIT BUT TIME IS YOUR BEST FRIEND IN THIS PROCESS, You can wait up to 3 hours before scraping. Now for the last step. There will be heavy areas of thick adhesive. Get them the best you can. Puddle stripper on these areas for another stripping . It is amazing what this second cleaning removes. The reason you want as much removed as possible is so when you sand to varnish with a belt sander it doesn’t gum up the sand paper. Hope this helps someone.

I am currently removing this nasty black padding from my 1890 house I bought. It’s only in the upstairs hallway thankfully but it’s a pain! We scraped off the thicker stuff but it was still stuck to the wood floors. We used citrus strip gel and it came off nicely but we are thinking we have to go over it again to get more off before painting the floors.

I have the joy of shag carpet by itself no pad or anything being glued straight to concrete the carpet itself will come up but I have thick layer of dried glue to contend with. I’ve tried almost everything and finally broke down and bought a household steamer because that seemed to work the best. It’s going so slow. I can only work in hour increments because of the steamer cooldown time before it can be refilled and the small amount of area that gets done is discouraging. I’m almost to the point of throwing down another wall to wall carpet to sell the house. I’m open to suggestion though.

Oh man, I am so sorry. Glued-down carpet is the absolute worst! If the dried glue looks like the black mastic pictured in my post, I would definitely recommend trying the Sentinel 747 adhesive remover. If it’s a different type of glue, I dont’ know for sure if this will work, but I feel your pain. If you are just doing this in order to sell the house, covering it up with new carpet might seriously be more worth it. Good luck!

Looking for Something?

Disclosures and Content Sharing

Thanks for stopping by Lovely Etc! While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy and effectiveness of the information displayed on this website, Lovely Etc. makes no guarantees as to the procedures and information contained here. The publisher will not be liable for direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages in connection with the information displayed on lovelyetc.com. This website is not intended to substitute for advice from a professional. I work hard to be honest and upfront in all of my posts here at Lovely Etc., including sponsored content. Lovely Etc is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. You can read my full disclosure policy here.

All of the photographs you see here are mine unless otherwise credited. I love for others to share my work so please feel free to use one photo with a link back to me. Pinning and sharing is always encouraged! Please do not reproduce other Lovely Etc. content without permission. Thank you!